Contest of Challengers

Contest of Challengers 84: Radio-Free Challengers

We just can’t get enough of our toys! We talk about lots of stuff this week, but really, all we wanna talk about are our toys. And then we wonder if this actually adds value to your lives? Also, toys. And Colt Cabana drops by.

Contest of Challengers 83: Hoax and Mirrors

Interviews w/ Michael Moreci & Steve Seeley and Ryan Browne, conducted during our HOAX HUNTERS/SMOKE AND MIRRORS launch party! But before that Patrick and Dal talk about what they can't, or SHOULDN'T, talk about, and stories of pranking other stores.

Contest of Challengers 82: First Person Shooter

Us? Where have YOU been? I realize the title of this episode may make you think we interview Jim Shooter. We do not. But we DO talk about video games more than we should. And about Mark Waid. And once again, Dal does not support Patrick’s (self) righteous indignation on ANY topic.

Contest of Challengers 81: Ultimate Drawing Challenge(rs)

This is the hardest Patrick has laughed while editing an episode, but he’s a child. Can you survive the Ultimate Drawing Challenge! And if you skip Comic Book Men, try The Variants instead.

Contest of Challengers 80: Radically Off Base

Topics include Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley’s recent media comments and, briefly, Before Watchmen.  

Contest of Challengers 79: Hand-To-Hand

Yes, we discuss our upcoming C2E2 layout. Sure, we discuss upcoming art shows and new show subjects. Absolutely we converse a LOT about hand selling. But most importantly, we talk about, and eat, s’mores. 

Contest of Challengers 78: Localized Dialogue

Kyle Baker looks towards the future as Patrick and Dal look to the immediate past. Featuring Weekly Email Newsletters, Sketch Blogs and the Chicago departure of Tony Akins.

Contest of Challengers 77: Featured Guests

Okay, look, this is not our best episode, but it’s real. We talk about 2nd Printings, Art Baltazar, C2E2 and New Events. I deleted most of the s’mores argument and our Happy Endings analysis, but I know I missed editing out an inappropriate joke in there.

Contest of Challengers 76: The Second One First

Featuring more listener questions; the collapse of Tundra; Captain America’s fake brother; and, the detailed answer to one of the most asked questions in the store… why do we dress like we do at Challengers?

Contest of Challengers 75: The Next

It’s the longest CoC episode, by far! It’s a huge look back to a full year’s worth of comic and graphic novel sales. And gushing over Eliza Frye, Sarah Becan and Jess Godwin. Happy New Year!

Contest of Challengers 74: Lost Kitty

A 'lost' episode from April 2011, featuring Tom Kelly & John Siuntres. Recorded in a very noisy Challengers while a sick patron was coughing loudly throughout the night. The coughing was all edited out but the remains are a bit choppy. It’s a good talk, but you have to work for it this week.

Contest of Challengers 73: Brain Tape

The countdown to Christmas sees the recap of recent events, a questioning of Marvel’s Astonishing line, the desire for custom t-shirts and a brief update on Achewood. Also, Stan Lee!

Contest of Challengers 72: Nerd Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve party @ Challengers! Hosted by singer Jess Godwin and writer Elliott Serrano. Food, drink, nerd burlesque, a ‘nerder’ mystery, and more. Details within. Also, 12 Rules for the Comics Industry (not ours) and we love Defenders #1.

Contest of Challengers 71: Completely Antithetical

Dal has completely redesigned the Challengers website, and he tells you why/how. We also talk recent #1 sales numbers and tell you all about why Patrick is annoyed with the local news media, as it relates to last week’s Lance Briggs event. Jerks.

Contest of Challengers 70: Man Hours

It feels like New Year’s already as it’s out with the old and in with the new. 2012 promises several new, ongoing events at Challengers, including Challengers Assemble/d, Comic Klatch, and the new Visual Field! And never be afraid of change or of revamping your website when it’s purpose changes. This week’s music by Joe Jackson and E’Nuff Z’Nuff.

Contest of Challengers 69: Your Apocalypse

Two distinct hales of one episode, complete with a musical intermission. In half one, Patrick and Dal go over their January orders and lament the sheer magnitude (Pop! Pop!) of February. And in part 2, a special guest joins them both AND ComiXology.

Contest of Challengers 68: Out of the Box

If money was no object, what would Challengers look like? We also discuss Holiday Sales, a possible New Year’s Eve party, actual sales numbers for Avenging Spider-Man #1 and the New DC 52 collection announcements. Bonus song: Animetal USA sings “Space Battleship Yamato”

Contest of Challengers 67: +1

This episode Patrick and Dal talk about their hiring practices and what they expect from their employees. And who better to help out with this discussion than Samantha Challenger! That’s right, you get 3, count ‘em THREE, Challengers in one episode! Total bargain deluxe.

Contest of Challengers 66: Human Voices

Lights; music; commerce! The boys talk about WHY they do events and how much thought goes into their execution. That leads into a discussion of Halloween events and then Dal explains the new Challengers Touch Screen Interface. Also, Tumblr!

Contest of Challengers 65: High-Tech Episode

128 tracks of recording quality and 127 of them are Dal!  We’re back and in a brand new studio!  We talk about what we expect from The Rogues Gallery, we introduce Ex Libris Challengers, and we go over the first month of Challengers Unlimited.  And then we discuss Newsarama’s Top Ten stories from the New York Comic Con (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/10-new-york-comic-con-news-items-111017.html) and end the episode looking at Month 2 of the New DCU.

Contest of Challengers 64: Value-Added Proposition

Say, did you ever wonder if comic retailers overreact to things? And, we love you SO much... we recoded this episode twice!

Contest of Challengers 63: #24HCD

This episode goes from the current 24 Hour Comics Day all the way back to the lost 3rd episode of CoC. With a bonus lost snippet added in. 

Conetst of Challengers 62: Antipluralization

What are publishers currently doing right? What should you NOT do when opening a comic shop? And SHOULD Challengers carry more toys?

Contest of Challengers 61: Oz-mosis

So, how did the first week of New DCU titles sell? And could we have sold more? We also talk some Skottie Young and more.  And Big Daddy Cool starts us off this week.

Contest of Challengers 60: The Window to our Windows

Yet another new Challengers plan for the future. Or, how you can win $3500.00 worth of new comics. And we talk about other stuff, too, but the $3500.00 is front and center.

Contest of Challengers 59: (un)Limited

Book clubs, shuffled art exhibits and Tardis cakes are discussed as we also reveal all the details and reasoning of what will forever be known as... Challengers Unlimited.

Contest of Challengers 58: Keepin' It P.S.

Events, recent past and future. A call to Jimmy PS Hayes. And how indy creators can help us notice their books.

Contest of Challengers 57: Buying A House For Your Second House

Well, they can’t ALL be winners. 

Contest of Challengers 56: Wordplay

Post-San Diego.  Brazilian Art Books.  Spider-Man Day. Season One books.  Amazing #669 Variant.  And Kofi Kingston.  I also almost called this episode, “Swoonin’ for Cloonan.”

Contest of Challengers 55: Kidding On The Square

We’re not in San Diego; we’re melting in Chicago. We love “One Soul.” We mock Rupert Murdoch. But do we have a moral imperative to protect you from yourself?

Contest of Challengers 54: Fit for Reinvention

Patrick cleans out his basement and finds a bunch of stuff he didn’t even know he had. So he describes it. Dal talks about Marvel’s ‘New Store Initiative.’ And they both recap a ‘state of Chicago comics retail’ night they had this week w/ a fellow retailer.

Contest of Challengers 53: Fandom = Vices

After a 2+ week break, Patrick and Dal realize they actually miss doing this show. So they talk... about Stuart Immonen and The Rogues Gallery, comic store fieldtrips, and why Dal is giving up super-hero comics for July.

Contest of Challengers 52: American Progress

Patrick was at the Summit City ComicCon while Dal was at the store hosting Around Comics. Ryan Browne and his awesome new comic "BLAST FURNACE: Recreational Thief" was at both! How is that even possible? Progress. American progress.

Contest of Challengers 51: 52 Pick-Up

Oh come on, you KNOW what this one is all about. One thing. Well, 52 new things out of one thing.

Contest of Challengers 50: Human Bondage Den

Hey ho, strike one; last one in's a son of a gun. Hey ho, strike two; can't fight here, this is the war room. So kiss me quickly; who'll oblige? Oh come along now, don't be shy. Don't be all surface; no insides. Oh, no. You've got to stop your grumbling, and all that human bondage den. So swear the heat in baby, no neck ties.

Contest of Challengers 2.16: Macho Madness

The Challengers website has been streamlined. Comic shop employees make terrible Club Members. Macho Man Randy Savage died (sad). Our pal JVO wrote a book. I guess this episode description is just a string of sentences.  Also, that ‘peasant joke’ is actually about lepers and is from an MST3K Hercules movie. “The lepers are revolting!”  “I’ll say!”

Contest of Challengers 2.15: Revolution Calling

Youth in Revolt! Party without books! Margaritas! Whose opinion do you really want? What makes a store event good? Are these even the right topics for this week’s episode? I can’t remember! I guess we’ll all find out together! Also, I completely forgot Dal’s episode title (it’s in there somewhere), so I had to pick something else.  Sorry, Dal.

Contest of Challengers 2.14: FCBDelicious

Free Comic Book Day 2011 was amazing. And here we tell you why.

Contest of Challengers 2.13: The Gordian Knot

How do you know where to find the Graphic Novels you’re looking for at Challengers? Dal proposes a new racking system and he and Patrick debate its merits. It’s a question without a complete answer and it is beaten to death in a frank and open discussion. And the return of the completely random post-podcast segments!

Contest of Challengers 2.12: Global Warning

Ha! I thought this was episode 13. We’ve had 2 ‘lost’ episodes in recent weeks, so my internal numbering is off. Anyway, this whole episode gets away from us and becomes darker than we planned. What started as a “we’re not complaining, but…” episode, turns into an hour of outright publisher bashing. But, man do I feel better!

Contest of Challengers 1.32: Wolves at the Door

It’s an all-podcast crossover episode with Contest of Challengers, Comics Slumber Party, Comic Geek Speak and Word Balloon all represented!  So let’s go back to Season 1 numbering as we talk to Becky Cloonan.

Contest of Challengers 2.11: Scare City

Contest of Challengers 2.10: The Hammer

This episode is called “The Hammer” for reasons that were edited out. But the name stuck. What you DO get is a C2E2 wrap-up, reasons why Becky Cloonan is pretty f’n awesome and the promised listener mail answers! Buckle up; it’s a long one!

Contest of Challengers 2.9: Welllllll, it's a Big Show

We don’t mean it to, but this episode is chock full of our C2E2 thoughts, set-up, plans and goals.  Not all at once, mind you, we spread it out for you. And Dal has some pretty great thoughts about the way digital comics should be made. See you at C2E2!

Contest of Challengers 2.8: Fashion Show

Like a new line of clothing on the runway, this week Patrick and Dal trot out a list of reasons why they do/don't do the things they do/don't do. Less industry wide/more of a Challengers-specific focus. And the answer to the Riddle of the Ages!

Contest of Challengers 2.7: Ad-diversity

Oh man, this one has it all—and LESS! We go from having nothing to talk about to having TOO much to talk about in the span of an hour. We get mad at each other and tensions rise, but we work thru it because we are pros. PROS!  Here’s a brief rundown: MSU’s Comic & Visual Narrative class; the end of DC’s First Wave line leads into Dal’s ultimate super-hero publishing plans; Marvel’s ‘new’ direction for the Marvel Adventures line; more on Ted Adams' Keynote Address from the 2011 ComicsPRO Con...

Contest of Challengers 2.6: Toys Story

This week on the ART OF WRESTLING podcast, host and pro-wrestling icon COLT CABANA talks about support for the show and the possibility of a live recording in the spring.  Elsewhere, Dal’s mind completely freezes and there is talk of Border’s effect on the current comic-buying climate. And... a bonus phone call from Jimmy P$ Hayes!

Contest of Challengers 2.5: Fearpoint

Man, are we on a roll! So much so that for the second time in 2011 we've had to increase our monthly podcast storage memory to accommodate our more-than-regular schedule! This one is a little shorter as we've already hit you with a Season 1 episode this week, but there's always a little something worth talking about in comics! Featuring Fear Itself vs. Flashpoint and a brief analysis on trying to sell 33 million convention tickets.

Contest of Challengers 1.31

What? Season 1 numbering? What's going on?!? It's the return to the interview format (and thus Season 1 numbering) as Patrick happily welcomes Samantha LaFountain to Challengers! What gets a 9-year old girl from the wilds of rural New Jersey interested in comics? Where do you even get comics in rural New Jersey? These questions and many, many others are answered in our giggliest episode to date!

Contest of Challengers 2.4: Variant Diversity

This week, the microphone faces Dal so Patrick is a mere echo! We had to wait a full day to post this, our 5th CoC in as many weeks, because we went over our monthly-allotted storage space w/ Libsyn, but it’s not our fault; comics never stand still, baby! Also, “insert show content here.” Ha! That was a joke! We actually talk about not having to like comics, but WANTING to, the Creators Front for Diversity in Comics, and why we don't stock variant covers anymore.